The Old Waterwheel, is a wooden water wheel that once supplied water to the Cape Leeuwin lighthouse from a fresh water spring in the Leeuwin-Naturaliste Ridge. The water-wheel system was built in 1895 to supply water for the stone masons of the lighthouse (builders were Wishart & Davies) and water to the lighthouse-keepers' cottages. The water is supplied by a natural fall from a spring that exists in marshland approximately 330 metres away, which in turn created a flow over the wheel which revolved and activated a ram pump to deliver water by pipe to the lighthouse area.
The water wheel has now calcified from the lime in the water, and although the wheel no longer turns, the water that trickles over the structure, is still as fresh as the day the water wheel was first erected.
@chrysanthemum@hermann@gilbertwood@happysnaps Thank you. I love the water wheel. We call in to see it every time we go to Augusta. The coast line in this area is beautiful. There are rock pools a few metres in front of the wheel.
